All That Glitters: The Golden Age of Rome in the Ars Amatoria

Abstract: I argue that Ovid depicts Rome as a Golden Age at the beginning of Book 1 of the Ars Amatoria, long before he makes the comparison explicit in Books 2 and 3. My approach is largely comparative, as I consider motifs common across various representations of the aurea aetas , such as commerce between gods and men and the absence of sailing. I then consider this new vision of paradise on earth in the context of the four long-recognized treatments of the Golden Age in the Ars Amatoria. Ovid’s sense of irony exposes faults in supposed Golden Ages and instead praises modernity for reasons completely counter to the moralizing of the Augustan regime.